20 August 2012

From the Soldier and Cop side:The other day when I was working at one of my
part time jobs (since I retired) at the gun range…I was between classes, so I was
on the range getting a few rounds down range.When I’m working this job, I have a very bright red shirt that say: “Firearms
Instructor” on it….so needless to say…I often get asked: “Are you a firearms
instructor?”

(I’m not going to say that everybody who
shows up at any given location is smart.)

So, after I shot a few magazines from my “gun
of the day” (I wear a different gun each day of the week) a younger dude
stopped me to ask a question.

He asked: “How can I become an
instructor?”

A question and answer period followed

Me:” You ever been in the military?”

Kid: “nope, they wouldn’t take me”

Me: “You going to be a cop?”

Kid: “Nope, they won’t take me either”

Me: “How long you been shooting?”

Kid: “a few weeks”

Me: “perfect, no background, no training,
no experience, you’ll be perfect to train Afgan Army”

Kid: “who are they?”

Me: “oh, they need a lot of training,
just go google them and find out.”

Other than that kid, it was a very good day of teaching. I had 2 brand new pistol shooters who've never shot before. At the end of the class, all rounds were going into the bullseye. I was very happy.

08 August 2012

I’m watching my 1 year old grand daughter
today.She’s just learning to walk and
she often falls down.I tried to explain
to her that the falling is caused by gravity.She just looked at me funny…so that leads into:

From the Soldier side: Many, many
years ago, in a galaxy far, far away…no, that’s from a movie.Let me start over again.Many, many years ago, in a place called Fort
Ord, California, I graduated from Army Basic training.We all thought we were bad asses, but up to
that point, we really weren’t even trained to do any kind of real job in the
Army.

To be able to “get a job” and work for
the US Army, you have to have what they call a Military Occupation Specialty
(M.O.S.)and to obtain that, you have to
go through and pass Advanced Individual Training (A.I.T.) or what you might
call a “school.”Once you have an M.O.S.
then you may attend other training, like “air borne” school.However, for those of us who were “straight
legs” jumping out of a plane was something for fools.Why would you jump out of a perfectly good
airplane?

When I joined the US Army, I hadn’t
actually joined to be a grunt (infantry) but because I trusted some assclown,
(I can’t use that kind of language with my granddaughter around) that’s where I
ended up.After Basic Training at Fort
Ord, I was shipped to Fort Polk, LAIf
you look Fort PUKE
you can see that it is the ass butt of the state of Louisiana.It was hot and it was humid.It was so freaky, that we’d go marching out
in the woods, it’d start to rain and before we could stop and put on our rain
gear, we’d be totally soaked.Then by
the time we got our rain gear on, it’d stop raining. I think God was messing
with us to make us better Soldiers.

Actually, once we got settled in and
sorted out, being in 11 Charlie training CLICKY HERE
was actually better than being in regular riflemen (11Bravo) training.We had an older drill sergeant who was too
tired to run, so when we went to our training, he’d have us walk.I felt sorry for the riflemen who had to run
to everything.

Since our training was more specialized-
how to set up and “lay in the gun” and fire it, and how to be a forward
observer and stuff like that, we trained away from the riflemen most of the
time.The only times we trained with
them was when we learned all the other grunt stuff we also had to know.You see in battle, if needed, we’d pick up
our rifles and join the others.Our main
job was to support them with “indirect fire” from behind.I was trained on the old 81 MM and the 4.2
inch (four duce) mortar.

Many times we’d be tasked with being the
OPFOR (Opposing Force) for the riflemen when they were learning how to assault
a hill or building.We’d be given
training hand grenades to throw and lots of blanks.

Lesson: When throwing hand grenades uphill
or up stairs, gravity is your enemy!

This was not in any Army manual, so how
did I learn this?Well, one day we were
out in the woods of Fort Polk (hereafter referred to as Fort Puke) and we had
some of the “enemy” up hill from us.I
pulled the pin on my M-something or another Frag Grenade simulator and threw it
up the hill.(these were real grenades
with a fuse, but no explosive charge.When the pin was pulled, and thrown, you had about 7-9 seconds before
the fuse popped and made a noise).

Or course…it hit a tree, bounced
backwards, then rolled back down the hill to where I was prone.I looked over at it as it went “POP!” and
thought: “Damn darn, I’m glad that wasn’ta real grenade.”

A few days later, we were learning how to
clear buildings of enemy soldiers.I was
only 18 years old and not terribly bright, so as we were going upstairs, I
threw another M-something or another frag up the stairs.I threw it really hard…it hit the wall,
bounced around, then came back down the stairs towards me.As it landed at my feet and went “POP!” I
made a mental note to try and work with gravity in the future.

01 August 2012

From the Soldier to Cop side: There’s
been some action being taken in recent days to help assist the troops being
discharged back into “society”.I
personally think that this is a great idea for in many cases, soldiers (a
general term to include all in the military) often joined up when they were
young.They spent anywhere from 4 to 30
years following orders, giving orders but always dealing with some kind of “order”.Then, regardless of age or background, upon
discharge they are poured back into the real world.

I know when I was discharged from the “regular
army” when I was 20 years old; I had no idea what I was going to do when I
returned home.Lucky for me, my dear old’
dad let me stay with him while I worked and went to college full time.

Fast forward to 2004-05.When my National Guard unit returned from
deployment to Bosnia, we had about 2 weeks of earned military leave that we had
on the books…so after we de-mobilized, we were getting our leave pay for 2
weeks.This was a great idea to have a
few weeks to rest before returning to work.However, the police department I was working for at the time didn’t
think I needed all that rest.As soon as
they found out I was home, they called me to get me to return to work.I almost had a whole week off—counting the
time in Bosnia- I was usually working 6 days a week and usually 12-16 hour
days---so I hadn’t had a vacation in a few years. That deployment was a total of 9 months.

I was tired.

But, I put on the blue uniform and went
back to work.

6 months later we were re-deployed to
Iraq (there were about 15 of us Bosnia vets with the unit who “volunteered” to
go to Iraq.)That deployment was a total
of 15 moths with the useless training before.So when I returned home and had 2 weeks of military leave I told the
P.D. that I’ was taking a whole month off – and I didn’t answer the phone.

After being home for a month and resting,
I went back into the patrol car.This
time the police department got a little smarter and had me ride with another
experienced officer.She was one of the
best cops I ever worked with…so the first day in the car she asked:”well, how
long do you want to ride with me?”
I looked at her and said: “As long as they let me.I like being driven around.” About 3 hours
into that shift we got a call of a bank robbery.For some reason I was the only one not
getting all excited---- well, what the heck, there was no gun involved so what
was the big deal?(remember after a year
in Iraq, anything is easy.)

2 weeks later, the town had one of the
biggest floods in 20 years…and I was working 12 hour shifts so many days I lost
track.But I was getting OVERTIME
pay.Unlike the Army.

This many people came here by mistake

Great Quotes in History---

"Some of us were put here to help others....I'm not sure what some of those Others were put here for."

“The US Army usually gets things right….but only after screwing things up a few times to get there.”

"Don't do anything half-ass...if you're going to be a screw up, do it right and do it all ass!"-Some First Sergeant in Iraq“His career choice is to be a martyr. Let’shelp him meet those objectives before he can do any harm to our guys.”

"US ARMY: Breaking things and hurting people since 1775"Before a war military science seems a real science, like astronomy; but after a war it seems more like astrology"Men. We're going into Fallujah today...so I want you to eat a full breakfast-everything, eggs, bacon, coffee, oatmeal, toast, milk, eat as much as you can. Because...you can't shit your pants in fear on an empty stomach."- CI Roller Dude in Dec 04.

OIF 3: "The cost of Freedom is HIGH! (About $1million per trooper per year)

SFOR 14-, the second to last season... "Stupidity got us into this mess....why can't it get us out?" Grenades: when throwing up stairs or up hill, gravity is your enemy.

Remember: "The Cops are only 6 minutes away---when you need them in 30 seconds."

“Never before in the history of mankind, have so few done so much for so many who didn’t give a shit”-CI Roller Baghdad, Iraq 2005.

Remember...half the people you know are below average!

Life is tough...it's tougher if you're stupid!

Never before in the history of mankind have so few done so much with no leadership, whilst so many did so little and still got paid~ SFOR 14, Bosnia 2003-04